Spanish purchase ends Motive dispute

UK production group Motive Television has agreed to buy the remaining third of Spanish subsidiary Motive Television SL that it does not own for €600,000 (US$748,000).

The deal was agreed with CCAN 2005 Inversiones Societarias, SCR SA De Regimen Simplificado (CCAN) and resolves a two-year legal dispute between the two companies in both the Spanish and UK courts.

Motive said the acquisition of the 32.3% stake is being part-financed by a placing of 6,153,846,154 new ordinary shares priced at £0.00013 each to raise gross proceeds of £800,000 (US$1.2m).

Of this, about £480,000 will be used to finance the CCAN settlement and the balance will be used to accelerate the roll-out of tablet TV in the US, UK and other markets.

In October 2010, Motive acquired 67.7%. of Adecq Digital SL (since renamed Motive Television SL) from its founders for €4.2m. CCAN owned the remaining 32.3%. until July 3, 2012, when it underwent a change of ownership. Motive exercised its rights under the shareholder agreement to acquire the CCAN stake at a nominal value of €0.10 per share – €70,116 in total.

Subsequently, CCAN notified the company it intended to exercise its rights under a put option to sell its shares to Motive for €2.1m, and the ownership transfer has been disputed ever since.

“This acquisition resolves the long-standing legal dispute between the company and CCAN and gives Motive complete ownership of its subsidiary, which owns its patented IPR,” said Michael Pilsworth, chairman of Motive Television. “It allows management to focus on the forthcoming launches of tablet TV in the US and the UK and on building our business.”